FROM THE SPANISH MONARCHY. 189 



formed by the junction of its two arms with the ocean. 

 Each of thefe tribes or people was fooner or later fub- 

 dued by the Romans, but their conqueror himfelf de-r 

 livers to us the mail honourable teftimony of their 

 valour. The Belgi, fays Caefar, alone of all the nations 

 of Gaul, repulfed the Cimbri and Teutones, on every 

 attack, from their borders. All the nations about the 

 Rhine, as we are told by Tacitus, were excelled by 

 the Batavi in feats of valour. This rude people paid 

 their tribute only in men, who were reierved by their 

 commanders, like fwords and arrows, for the pur- 

 pofes of deftrudlion. The Romany themfelves de- 

 clared the batavian cavalry to be the belt part of their 

 army; and, for a long time they compofed the body 

 guard of the roman emperors. They w r ere alTLftmg to 

 Agricola in the conquer! of Britain ; their furious 

 courage terrified the Dacians, as they fwam in com- 

 plete armour acrofs the Danube. Of them all the Frifi 

 were conquered the laft, and w f ere the firft to regain; 

 their freedom. The morafTes among which they dwelt y 

 allured the conquerors later, and coil them more. The 

 toman Drums, who made war on thefe territories, dug. 

 a canal from the Rhine to the Fievo, the prefent Zuy- 

 derfee, by which the roman fleet had a pafiage into the 

 north fea, and from thence, by the mournings of the 

 Ems and the Weier, found an eafy way into the heart 

 of Germany. 



During a ipace of fo-ur hundred years we find Bata- 

 vians in the roman armies ; but, from the times of Ho- 

 norius their very name no longer appears in hiflory. 

 We fee their ifland overflowed by the Franks ; who 

 are loft again in the neighbouring Belgi. In the mean 



time 



